Even when I’m not thinking about puzzles or intending to learn about puzzles, puzzles find me.

I was reading one of the most recent editions of Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, those delightful compendiums of all things amazing, weird, and unlikely. Everything from world records and peculiar habits to once-in-a-lifetime events and mind-bending coincidences are found between the covers of these collections.

And one particular fact caught my eye:

Eighty-six prisoners at Exeter Jail in Devon, England, signed a formal letter of complaint claiming that a Sudoku puzzle in the local newspaper — the Exeter Express and Echo — on May 21, 2015, was impossible to solve.

I was instantly intrigued.

[Image courtesy of The Telegraph.]

Here is the message the prisoners sent to the editor of The Exeter Express and Echo:

Dear Sir/Madam, I am sadly writing this letter in A LOT of disappointment.

As you will see, I’ve enclosed last week’s Sudoko [sic] page and we (along with 84 other prisoners) believe you printed a ‘hard’ Sudoku which is IMPOSSIBLE to complete.

As being prisoners we are only aloud [sic] access to Thursday’s issue, so we couldn’t verify the truth.

Yours FAITHFULLY,

Michael Blatchford
Shane Smith

Yes, The Exeter Express and Echo is printed twice a week, and since the answers to Thursday’s puzzles appear on Monday, and the inmates don’t have access to Monday’s issues, they were unable to check their own work.

So, naturally, I had to see whether this Sudoku puzzle was as unsolvable as the inmates claimed.

Finding a copy of the puzzle wasn’t hard. Here, I’ll post it here, in case you want to try your hand at it yourself:

[Image courtesy of The Telegraph.]

So, is it impossible?

Well, no.

In all honesty, I’m not the strongest or the fastest Sudoku solver. But I did complete this puzzle, difficult as it was. I suspect, given time, you would complete it as well. I don’t mean to impugn the Sudoku skills of the Exeter Jail population. I’m just saying.

As it turns out, the inmates had made a few key mistakes, mostly in the middle section, and since they apparently solve in ink, it made things much harder.

But, in a lovely response, the staff at The Exeter Express and Echo promised to make Monday papers available to the inmates as well, so they can double-check their answers next time. That’s nice.

And here’s hoping their Sudoku solving has been smooth sailing ever since. Apparently, it has been, since Ripley’s has yet to mention them a second time.

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